What are you reading today/book club

[sagc]

I'm currently about halfway through this, and it's great - there's a good excerpt .

[Cowboy]

Has anyone read Papillon

[Juugx86]

I've been reading American Desperado, by Evan Wright (The guy behind Generation Kill) and Jon Roberts. Bretty gud. I've always been obsessed with organized crime my entire life, and the subject of this autobio was a main player in Cocaine Cowboys, one of the greatest documentaries ever put to film. If you even have a fleeting interest with the mob, the miami coke boom, or extreme violence and hedonism check it out.

[australia2]

Finished The Martian in 3 days - very easy and enjoyable read.

Now onto The Book Thief - lovely so far.

[charybdis]

[adiabatic]

[j3ssicarhh]

really want to re-read all of my harry potter books but effort :|

[lyysander]

I'm all about those Vonnegut short stories right now.

[brlmski]

i just finished the dark forest, the second book in the three body trilogy and am now awaiting the translation of the third volume.

[Dingdongfootball]

Picked up a few books from the school library in my attempt to get back into reading for pleasure. It's kind of hard for me during the school year because I'm busy and also always sleep deprived. I struggle to read more than like forty pages without falling dozing off but whatevs.

Already started The Sun Also Rises and really enjoy it so far. Very relatable and relevant haha. Excited to read Dandelion Wine, The Sound and the Fury, and Skeleton Crew.

[radicalbusiness]

Reading The Rings of Saturn currently. Really have enjoyed it so far, although it is very dark. The narrative is an extremely dry and encyclopedic stream of consciousness from Sebald as he walks through Suffolk region of England. Important read for my personal grapples with the deep history of violence and exploitation that happens to also define the world we live in now. It certainly has led me to question the assurance that 'things are getting better.' (regarding xenophobia, erasure, exploitation, massacres etc.)

[mu_]

Infinite City, a collection of San Francisco atlases by Rebecca Solnit. Fascinating book: each map has one or two themes of Xanadu, sometimes complimentary sometimes contradictory, and an accompanied essay which explains what the map is showing. For example, one shows the locations of major military bases, defense contractors, and multinational headquarters (Chevron, Bechtel), a far right counterpoint to an area that is seen as one of the most left leaning in the country. Other maps show neighborhood histories, for the Fillmore/Japantown, the Mission, SoMa. Others still illustrate the natural history of the area, mapping parks or butterfly gardens.

highly recommend

[khayandhi]

Recently re-read: The Chukchi Bible, Yuri Rytkheu. It's a pretty strange piece of writing, cross between a genealogy, a text on Chukchi anthropology, and any great Russian novel of the last 200 years. Starts with creation mythology and early oral history and moves to the present (at the time of writing) day/the life-story of the author's grandfather and some very biting notes on Russian and American colonialism (you're essentially watching the Chukchi way of life get wiped out) pretty seamlessly, the characters in each set-piece are tied together. The mythology is never sold as 'mythology', which is particularly special, it's exactly as real as the stories about Japanese fishing trawlers or traveling to San Francisco~ Superb book, in my top 2 or 3, really recommended if you can get your hands on it.

Starting on: Orhan Pamuk's latest (wow, Orhan Pamuk wrote a book about an Istanbullu dude who pines after an enigmatic woman for decades and does some stalkery things, also nostalgia for 40-years-ago Istanbul and an encyclopedic onslaught of buildings/neighborhoods/foodstuffs/advertisements; I WOULD NEVER HAVE EXPECTED THIS DEVELOPMENT)

Mostly reading: papers papers textbooks textbooks papers papers, and they all suck

[thecanadiancook]

I found out my university library has a collection of books on various designers. So this was today's read.

[parastexis]

the plague of fantasies by Zizek. first time reading "critical theory" or whatever and it's really enjoyable.

[bels]

Read this ARTIC about Azzedine Alaia as we all know that I am mainly interested in designers rather than the clothes they design.

http://www.vanityfair.com/style/2012/09 ... on-clothes

Makes him sound pretty legit. Plus he has a UNIFORM so I have created an album of his POWERFUL FLINTSTONE. If anyone can ID the adidas I would me most grateful.

[sparkyoriental]

I started listening to Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari today during my morning commute. It's pretty good! Fulfills my need for something upbeat and high energy while on the highway at 7am. Nothing revolutionary, at least not yet. If you liked the OkCupid statistics blog posts, you'd probably like this book. I got the audiobook for "free" through Scribd. Wouldn't pay for it.

Also started listening to Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking. For some reason, I can't get into it. I read Slouching Through Bethlehem a year ago and didn't like it much, but everyone loves her so much that I thought I'd give her another try. Her writing style is kind of disdainful and impersonal towards her subjects, even herself. Idk. Not understanding the hype.

[dull]

just started reading the Iliad in mythology, very interesting

[beeftips]

Just finished "The Rise of the Islamic State" by Patrick Cockburn. It's super short and good catch-up kind of book when it comes to figuring out what exactly is going on in Syria/Iraq and to a lesser extent Iran/Turkey. Not as detailed as I was hoping, but I feel a little bit more comfortable now in my knowledge of that whole situation.

Just started "the life-changing magic of tidying up" by Marie Kondo. Hoping to take advantage of all of her advice when I finally move into my own place.

[JewTurk]

Has anyone read any of Joseph Frank's biography on Dostoevsky? Wondering if the five volumes are worth it or if the condensed version does justice.

Read On the Road and A Room with a View recently. Going to find a copy of The Unbearable Lightness of Being for my next read I think.

[wax]

I read Stranger in a Strange Land and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress over the xmas/ new year period and I think I have reached a point in my life where I can't look past the deficiencies in Heinlein's sci fi. I read Starship Troopers ages ago in high school and vaguely recall enjoying it, so probably it's just an age thing. Or maybe the civilian/citizen monologue was actually legit, who knows.

Both have the same irritating narrative mechanism of a Pretty Dumb Little Thing who exists solely so the protagonist can explain Serious Business & Philosophy to them, and then later they can fuck. I don't know where I really stand on judging past literary works with todays morals, but there's some pretty chauvinistic bullshit going on in both books - I think Stranger has a line which is like "9 out of 10 times that a woman gets raped, it's partly her fault anyway" (said by the female character, of course). I read the full version of Stranger rather than the short version that was printed initially, and it seemed a bit padded, so I'd be interested to hear from anyone who's read both as to whether they like the shorter version more.

On a whim I picked up Freedom by Joseph Franzen at the library, because I recalled a conversation I had with a girl about it at a party several years ago. I'm maybe 40% through and not at all sure why anyone would want to read this kind of book, but maybe it gets better? the cover says that it is 'a compelling portrait of modern life' or something and if that is the case perhaps I should investigate options for opting out of modern life.

[sparkyoriental]

I don't read a lot. I think I read maybe 2 books in 2015 (The Goldfinch and Gone Girl). Does anyone have any recommendations for books geared towards someone who is getting back into reading? Ideally I'd like to read one book a month. Nothing too difficult, but I want to be challenged at the same time.

I guess I like emotionally challenging books with interesting characters. More character driven than plot driven books.

[germinal]

Started the brothers karamazov. Can't wait to receive my complimentary swebay trousers!

[dakaf_fal]

I've been reading Midnight's Children for the last week or so. Not sure how I feel about it so far, it seems kind of like something Gabriel Garcia Marquez would have written if he was born in India instead of Columbia. That's far from being the worst thing in the world, but I'm not sold on it yet.

[odradek]

i worry that there's something wrong with me because everyone talks about how rich rushdie's writing is but it always feels really flat to me. there's no doubt he's very inventive but i've never gotten into anything he's written, which is my way of saying i'm with you on not getting into it. i lied when i said i've never gotten into anything he's written though because i wanted to emphasize that i really, really, really love Haroun and the Sea of Stories.

[germinal]

It's interesting reading Karamazov and V.A.L.I.S. at the same time. Both are bleakly realist drudgeries leavened only by the humourously rambling style ("that is to say"), and both are punctuated frequently with impenetrable theological discussion. The difference is that one was written by a borderline insane diarist in the years leading to his death and the other was written by Philip K Dick.

[ben]

Trying my best to stop buying from Supreme

[mc-lunar]

[Iliam]

This thread is still called "What are you reading today/book club".

where is the book club.

[Iliam]

I will attempt to start the care-tags book club anew.

The 1st Book for the Care-tags Book club will be:

*** The Invention of Morel *** by ~Adolfo Bioy Casares~



It's less than 100 pages so should be easy to get through even if you think its a pile of trash.

Please post your thoughts, facts and opinions by the 3/3/2016.
On the 3/3/2016, I will announce a new book!

If you're going to buy the book, please don't buy from amazon.com or affiliates if you can help it

If you have any book suggestions message me or post them here.
Books must be must be no longer than 200 pages and must be objectively good as decided by me and my close friend Elaine Showalter.